Harbinger
by penelope lemon
Summary: In 1995 Judy and Peter played Jumanji and brought the game world to the real world, where creatures from the jungle threatened the lives of the players. In 2005, Danny and Walter were launched into outer space by Zathura and had to battle lizard-like aliens with the help of a stranded astronaut. It's 2015, and a new game is calling to new players who await a new fate.


**Chapter One**

 **A New Game**

The Bowen boys had managed to scare off every babysitter and nanny their mother had forced on them in the last four years.

Every babysitter that is, but Billie Stott.

Ezra was the eldest of the Bowen boys and the ringleader of every devious operation the boys carried out with their caretakers. He was ten years and seventy five pounds of wild energy, with a mouth that moved about as fast as he did. The first time his mother called Billie over to watch him and his little brother, Ezra devised a plan to tie Billie to a chair, gag her mouth with dirty underwear, and then proceeded to shave the cat with a razor. The poor animal was still growing back its fur in patches. If only Carrie Bowen could harness her son's creativity and channel it into something constructive then maybe she wouldn't have gone through twelve babysitters in four years.

Jonah was eight years old. Dark haired and dark eyed just like his brother, but the similarities stopped there. Jonah was a well behaved and soft spoken kid, unlike his brother. He was smart too, and Billie wondered at times if he was the true mastermind behind the boys clever pranks. He tagged along everywhere with Ezra, quietly doing his older brothers bidding. He rarely talked, unlike Ezra where the real challenge was getting him to shut up, Jonah kept to himself. It wasn't until Billie's third time babysitting that Jonah talked to her, and even then he barley spoke a sentence. Billie had a theory that Jonah's silence was attributed to the fact that their father walked out on them two years ago. It left the small family in shambles and the boys had very little guidance in their life.

That's why Billie bothered coming back to babysit after being gagged with boxer shorts her first time. She would have never returned if she didn't feel so sympathetic towards Carrie Bowen, the newly single mother with two rambunctious children. She tried to be a good mother, but raising two children on her own was no easy feat. Billie came to the Bowen house at least twice a week while Carrie was working, and watched her kids. It was a no glamorous gig but it got her the extra spending money she needed. The Bowen brothers had eventually warmed up to her, though it had taken some time. Billie was used to their antics now, and knew what signs to watch for before Ezra carried out one of his more evil schemes. She usually caught them before things got to out of hand. She had gotten pretty good at babysitting; she could get the boys to eat their veggies, change into their pajamas, and off to bed before nine o'clock and still have time to clean the house before Carrie got home. She would like to see someone else try and wrestle two squirming boys into bed while they gleefully pelted them with rubber bands guns. It was much harder than it seemed.

Billie had managed and after a few months, she nearly had the boys under her thumb.

She stood in the kitchen, cleaning up the lunch mess from that day while the boys played outside. The black cat with missing tuffs of fur, wondered lazily around her feet and meowed occasionally. As she ran the water in the sink and started on the dishes, she could hear Jonah and Ezra shouting and laughing from the backyard. The cat meowed again at her feet.

"Okay, I'll feed you in a minute," Billie said a little impatiently to the cat who was rubbing up against her leg now. Billie puffed out a breath to try and move a piece of hair out of her face. The light brown strand fluttered, then fell limp at her cheek. As she rinsed the plates she watched Ezra and Jonah run past the kitchen window towards the back deck. She finished up, dried her hands, and moved to get the cat food.

She couldn't really explain why or how she had grown so attached to the Bowen boys over the past few months. Perhaps she saw herself in both of them, what with Ezra's creative and strong personality, or Jonah's gentle meekness and quiet intelligence she could practically build another version of herself. Perhaps it was because she had watched her own father walk out on her family when she was only a few years older than Ezra and she understood the confusion and pain the boys felt. Either way she was fond of the brothers; they may be plotting her demise when she wasn't looking, but there was a soft spot in her heart for them nonetheless.

"There you go Houdini," Billie said as she placed the food bowl on the floor. The cat, named after the famous illusionist, purred and she scratched the top of his head.

Billie tied her hair up with an elastic and glanced around the clean kitchen, giving a satisfied nod. She listened for the boys but things were suspiciously quiet. She pursed her lips and crossed the kitchen to the sliding glass door. She opened it, leaned out and called, "Boys? Where are you?"

There was no reply.

"Ezra! Jonah!" she tried again but was met with silence. She glanced at Houdini then closed the door. She knew too well that silence like this meant only one thing; trouble. She turned and walked the first floor of the house, calling for her charges. Something wasn't right, and she had a feeling that Ezra was up to something.

She took the stairs to the second floor two at a time, calling for Ezra and Jonah.

On the landing, she could hear voices. They were soft, barely audible, but sweet sounding. They had to have been female, they were too high pitched to be a male. They were humming, singing some song with words Billie had never heard before. She strained her ears to listen to the gentle music. It was pleasant but confusing. The Bowen boys had never been ones to listen to music when there were animals to torture and babysitters to tease, especially music like this. This music was something otherworldly.

Billie heard a hiss as Houdini climbed the stairs after her. She shook her head, distracted with the music and having forgotten her mission of finding the boys. She headed down the hallway towards their room, Houdini right behind her.

She paused outside their bedroom door and the singing suddenly grew louder and more intense. The voices seemed to grow more desperate, but never rose above a loud whisper. She wrapped her fingers around the door knob, twisted, and pushed the door open.

The music stopped suddenly, the voices vanishing. Billie felt strange with the absence of the voices but she had little time to ponder on the feeling. Jonah and Ezra were on the floor of their bedroom, a game board sitting between them. She breathed a sigh of relief, the trepidation from before vanishing and the music all but forgotten. She relaxed and leaned on the door frame.

"What are you boys up to?" she asked.

Ezra and Jonah, who had been staring at the game board looked up at her. Ezra grinned wickedly.

"We found a game!" he announced.

"Oh? Where?" Billie asked and entered the room, closing the door behind her. She lowered herself to the floor next to Jonah, who scooted over to make room for her. Houdini slipped in just before the door shut completely, jumping onto Ezra's bed then into the top of his dresser. He watched from the perch, his amber eyes trained on the game and his tail twitching methodically.

"In the old sandbox in the backyard," Ezra replied, glancing down at the game again.

"What were you doing into the sandbox? You haven't played out there in ages," Billie said and looked at Jonah.

"We were trying to see how far down we could dig," Jonah replied.

Billie raised her eyebrows and turned her attention to the board game. The box looked like it had seen its better days. The cardboard was torn and warped in places where it had been saturated with water. The title of the game was faded and difficult to make out. She turned it so she could read the name.

" _Harbinger_? Odd name for a board game," she said and looked at the boys, "Should we open it?"

Both boys nodded enthusiastically. Billie shrugged her shoulders and lifted the lid. The only thing inside the cardboard box was a thick wooden game table. She pulled it out and set it on the floor, and the three of them leaned over the game to study it. It was beautifully crafted but damaged with age. The wood was painted in a rich blue color and there were tiny, ornate carvings bordering the game. Billie ran a finger over the carvings which depicted various underwater themes. There was a mermaid with black hair whose silver tail cured around the bottom corner on the left side. Her red lips were parted in a grin, showing sharp, sinister teeth. Massive, white capped waves lined one corner of the game and beneath that a large green sea turtle. The plates on its shell were expertly painted in small designs. There was a ships wheel, a string ray and other various fish, a scuba diver and even a purple octopus with twisted legs. Some of the carvings were dented and the paint had chipped around the edges but the game seemed to be in remarkable condition for having sat in the bottom of a sandbox for God knows how long.

There was a path carved out for the game pieces. They were round and looked to be made of some kind of white marble. The path twisted around the board until it ended at the finish at the bottom of the board. There was, what looked like, a plate of glass in the center of the game. It was round, framed with polished grey metal and screws that made it look like a porthole. Billie leaned over to peer in, but could only see a smokey grey color behind the glass. She turned her attention to the pieces that were made out of the same metal material. There was a pirate ship figurine, a shark, a horse conch shell and a starfish. The figurines were carved in the same pristine, careful manner as the border. The pirate ship was five spaces ahead on the path, the rest of the pieces were still on the start. A pair of dice sat next to the pieces, also made of white marble with black painted dots for the numbers.

"Woah," Ezra breathed, mesmerized by the game board. His eyes were wide.

"You said it," Billie answered and reached for the pirate ship, but when she went to move it, the piece would not budge. "It's stuck."

Jonah reached forward and tried to move the ship. He tried the shark, the shell and the starfish but to no avail. It was like they were glued to the board.

Billie picked up the dice.

"I want to go first!" Ezra said suddenly and lunged for the dice. Billie raised her eyebrows at the ten year old and pulled the dice out of reach. "Please" Ezra added and she handed over the dice.

"Look, there's something here," Jonah said. He had the lid of the cardboard box in his hand, turned over, and was studying an inscription on the inside. He handed it to Billie.

"Greetings fortunate player," Billie read the black cursive writing, "Roll the dice to begin the game, but players beware; once the game starts there is no end until someone reaches finish. Be on your toes and watch your back, you never know who you can trust or what creatures of the deep will come for you. The fully immersible adventure awaits, just drop the dice and let the excitement begin."

"That doesn't even rhyme," Jonah pointed out.

Billie shrugged and tossed the top of the box, "Very cryptic too. What are the rules?"

"Who cares?" Ezra said. "Let's play!"

"Wait!" Billie said but Ezra dropped the dice. They clattered onto the board.

Ezra leaned over the game. "Three," he counted on the dice. Ezra, Jonah and Billie all gasped when the conch shell began to slide across the board three spaces.

"Wow," Jonah whispered.

"Damn," mumbled Ezra, "I wanted to be the shark."

"Watch your language!" Billie scolded.

Houdini hissed from the top of the dresser, the fur on his back standing on edge. The three waited, but nothing happened.

"Now what?" Jonah asked.

Billie looked at the game. They grey smoke behind the glass began to shift, and cursive letters started to form.

 _Welcome to Harbinger._

The grey smoke shifted again and the words vanished, turning a light blue color. It began looking less like smoke and more solid like water, that began bubbling up towards them. Except the water didn't stop and suddenly it was gushing out from the middle of the game. It poured over the side of the game and began soaking into the carpet.

"What's happening?" Ezra said, his voice warbling, frightened that he was going to be in trouble for whatever reason. They all jumped to their feet as the water covered the entire surface area of the bedroom and began lapping up against the baseboards.

Billie grabbed the board and more water spurted from the porthole like a geyser. She jumped towards the door and reached for the doorknob, knowing that Carrie Bowen would never call her again if she flooded the boys room. She twisted the knob but the door didn't budge. She tried again, yanking with all of her might, but the door remind shut. She turned to the boys as the water creeped up her ankles.

"Did you lock it?" She practically screamed, her heart pounding and fear tightening in her chest. She needed to get this possessed game outside before it flooded the whole house.

The boys looked as frightened as Billie felt. Their eyes were wide and worried, and they quickly shook their heads no. She tried the door once more, bracing a foot on the wall next to the door handle and pulling as hard as she could. Billie went to the bedroom window and tried to pull it open to toss the game out, but like the door, it wouldn't open. Billie dropped the game into the floor, now a few feet under water, and glanced around the room for something to break the window with. Ezra and Jonah clambered onto Ezra's bed but it did little to help protect them as water continued to fill the room. Billie wadded over to the closet and opened the closet door to grab a baseball bat. She went to the window and swung the bag as hard as she could. It ricocheted off the glass without leaving a crack and Billie tried again.

"Billie!" Jonah said, sounding close to tears. "Billie what do we do?"

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" Billie cried. She dropped the bat and looked around the room. The door wouldn't open and neither would the window. They were trapped inside. Billie abandoned the idea of trying to get out of the room and went to the game. The water was past her waist and already a foot above the bed. A few more minutes and Ezra and Jonah would be swimming. Billie moved aside a few floating toys and some clothes to grab the board game. She grabbed a floating pillow and shoved it over the game to try and soak up some of the water, but it was rushing to fast. There was no stopping it.

Billie climbed onto the bed next to the boys; her shoes, pants and shirt soaked through.

"Billie! What's happening? Why wont it stop?" Ezra was shouting.

"I don't know! I don't know what to do!" Billie said, frantically searching the room. Her eyes landed on the shelf over the bed, just behind Ezra's head.

"Hand me that trophy!" she barked and Ezra did as he was told.

If she couldn't soak up the water, then maybe she could break the game to stop the water from waterfalling into the room. She held the game in one hand and the soccer trophy in the other, then bashed it against the game as hard as she could. She tried again, and again, but game refused to break. She dropped the trophy, it sunk to the bottom of the bedroom, and the game, which floated lazily away, gusting water.

She was out of ideas and she was out of time.

The water was almost up to Jonah's neck. Billie reached down and hoisted the boy onto her hip to keep him topside just a few minutes longer. Houdini began wailing and Billie looked to see the poor cat clawing the water, trying to keep his head up now that the dresser was completely submerged. Ezra began treading water, fanatically shouting at Billie to help him. The water was up to her chest now and it was only a few more inches before they would all be underwater.

"Keep swimming!" she instructed Ezra, "Both of you need to keep your head above the water for as long as possible understand? When the water hits the ceiling hold your breath!"

She glanced at Jonah who had his face nuzzled in her shoulder. With her free hand, she took hold of Ezra's collar and pulled him up out of the water a bit further. The water was to her chin now and her feet had lost contact with the bed. She kicked her legs to keep herself up, but the weight of Jonah was pulling her down. She kicked harder. She wasn't sure what was going to happen once the water reached the top of the bedroom. Perhaps it would just drain back into the game. A highly unlikely possibility, but Billie was hoping. She didn't want to drowned, she was only eighteen.

"Ready?" she cried.

The only replies were Ezra's screams, Jonah's soft whimpering and Houdini's loud, frantic meowing. The water filled the last few inches of space they had left. Billie pressed her forehead to the ceiling, drew a deep breath, and the water engulfed them. It was eerily quiet below the water line. Billie could hear the blood pounding in her ears and the soft, muffled sound of Ezra's screams. She opened her eyes but it was too dark to see and the salt water stung. She closed them quickly. The water began churning, and Billie felt Jonah's grip loosen. She held him tighter but the water continued to move and bubble around them and the boy slipped from her grasp. She yelled for him but only a string of silent bubbles rose from her mouth. She reached out her arms but her hands made contact with only water. Her lungs began to burn and she could feel herself growing light headed. Instinct told her to swim but logic told her that it would do no good.

They were going to die, drowned in a flooded room, by a cursed board game.

This was not how she imagined she would go.

Her lungs ached for air, but Billie was not one to give up. She used the last of her strength to move her arms and kick her legs. The whirling water made it hard to move, hard to even tell which direction she was swimming, but she kept going. Just as her lungs began feeling like they were going to burst, her head finally broke the surface.

Billie sucked in a big gulp of air, her chest cramped and heaving. She opened her eyes.

They were no longer in the bedroom. They weren't even in the Bowen household anymore.

Billie tread the water around her, turning herself in a full circle. Everywhere she looked, there was the vast, blue expanse of an ocean. The water rose and dipped lazily in slow, lumbering waves. She bobbed over the surface of the water, eyeing the horizon where the light blue of the sky met the dark of the ocean. She blinked up to the bright sunlight that was bearing down on them.

 _Them._

"Jonah? Ezra?" Billie cried, realizing the boys were nowhere in sight.

"Billie! Billie over here!"

She turned and spotted Ezra a few yards away from her, supporting his younger brother. A few seconds and he was gone as a swell rose between them. Billie waited for the water to subside then began swimming towards the boys. She was exhausted, her whole body aching, but she reached the boys and took Jonah from Ezra's struggling arms.

"Is everyone okay?" she panted.

Jonah nodded as he clung to her neck. He was breathing heavily and so was his brother.

"I'm sorry!" Ezra choked.

"Its not your fault—" Billie began.

"But it is my fault! I dropped the dice and you told me not to but I did it anyways! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"Ezra!" Billie snapped and splashed a handful of water towards his face to quiet the boy's hysterical ramblings. "Knock it off! You're scaring your brother."

Ezra coughed and wiped the salt water from his eyes, glaring at his babysitter. She ignored him, glancing at Jonah.

"Now listen here," she said firmly as they floated in the ocean, "We are going to be okay, just trust me—"

Again she was interrupted, this time by meowing. The three of them turned their heads to see a thoroughly soaked Houdini curled on top of the floating board game, which had finally stopped spewing water.

"Houdini!" Jonah cried happily.

Billie watched the cat meow again as he and the game drifted closer. She couldn't explain what had happened in the last few minutes. One second she was hearing hauntingly beautiful voices, the next, she found herself in the middle of the ocean. She eyed _Nauticea_ , finding it hard to believe a childrens board game buried in a sandbox was responsible for transporting them to the middle of the ocean. Then again, she didn't know what else to blame the supernatural occurrences on. It was really the only explanation, but the idea was complexly ludicrous.

Billie shifted Jonah's weight, struggling to keep both of their heads above the water. She would worry about the game later. Right now, she needed to find a way to get them out of their predicament. They couldn't float in the middle of the ocean forever and Billie wasn't sure how long she would be able to keep swimming with Jonah holding onto her. She scoured the horizon for signs of land but there was only ocean.

"Billie!" Jonah said.

"Hush," she quieted, "I'm thinking."

They needed a raft or something to help support them. Driftwood might do the trick but there was none around. The game board obviously floated but it looked like Houdini had already claimed it and it wouldn't be able to hold all three of them.

"Billie!" Jonah said again, pointing.

"What?" she snapped. She turned so she could face what Jonah was pointing at. About a football fields distance away from them, the water began to ripple. A dark figure rose from the ocean floor towards the surface, causing the water to roll into waves.

Jonah's fingernails dug into the back of Billie's neck. Ezra swam closer to her, clutching the game and Houdini. "What is that Billie?"

"I don't know," Billie murmured as she watched the dark object ascend closer to the surface. Her heart began to pound. She couldn't make out the object, but it was easily the size of a large whale. Did whales eat people? She was sure and she knew she didn't want to stick around to find out. There was a deep rumbling. The water parted as three large antennas appeared, followed by an oblong conning tower and diving fins. She gasped as she recognized the object.

"It's a submarine..." Jonah said.

"Cool!" Ezra said excitedly.

Billie's eyes wandered the length of submersible, which was easily over five hundred feet long. Only the topmost part of the hull was visible, along with the antennas, the tower and a few feet of the rudder. It was black plated, and looked unlike any submarine Billie had ever seen before; not that she had seen enough submarines to really know. There was a loud groan from the forward hatch as the door was opened. A figure climbed out and called out to Billie, Houdini and the boys, waving his hand above his head.

"We're saved!" Ezra said and began swimming towards the submarine.

"Ezra wait!" Billie said, an uneasy feeling making her hesitate. The eldest Bowen boy ignored her, kicking faster. He dragged the board game with him, with Houdini still crouched on top of it. Houdini hissed as water sloshed over the side of the game and wet his paws.

Billie glanced at Jonah, who looked at her questioningly. She turned back to the submarine. The last thing she wanted to do was trust a machine that had suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean, but she really had no choice. She was exhausted, and the submarine meant people, and people meant rescue. She sighed and followed Ezra, holding Jonah as best she could.

Ezra was pulled onto the hull by the man. He sat with Houdini in his lap and the game next to him, watching as Billie reached the submarine.

"Here," Billie panted and positioned Jonah in front of her. She lifted the eight year old out of the water and handed him to the man that had appeared from the hatch. He grabbed Jonah by the underarms and set him down next to his brother. He then held out his hand for Billie. She glanced at the man's face then took his outstretched hand gratefully and he pulled her from the ocean. She clambered onto the top of the submarine and collapsed next to the brothers, breathless and feeling like her limbs were made of lead.

"Looks like you three have been through quite an ordeal," the man said.

Billie look at him again. He was an older man, with thick salt and pepper hair and a clean shaven face. She could tell he was some type of military man, with the way he carried himself, Navy most likely. He had bright eyes and a hard mouth. He was thickly muscled for a man of his age, and crossed his massive arms over his broad chest as he studied the three of them.

Billie was too tired to reply. She just panted as she tried to chase away some of the exhaustion that was plaguing her body.

The man chuckled. "You're safe for now. Welcome aboard the _Harbinger._ "


End file.
